IPO Year-End Damage Report

It was a dismal year for taking your company public, as Ernst & Young's year-end global IPO report shows. For the year through November:

• 2008: 745 IPOs worldwide, raising $95.3 billion.
• 2007: 1,790 IPOs worldwide, raising $256.9 billion.

That's the lowest total since 1995, and full-year figures are expected to continue the trend. Some 298 IPOs were postponed or withdrawn this year vs. just 167 in 2007.

What action there was in new offerings took place increasingly in Asia (led by China), which outpaced the amount of capital raised in North America this year. New Asian public offerings raised $29.7 billion in 337 IPOs compared to North America's 91 deals worth $27 billion. By size, Visa's IPO was the years largest (and the largest ever at $19.7 billion) but of the top 20, 15 were in emerging markets.

The takeaway here is that going public is an increasingly global phenomenon, and when the world economy takes a hit there aren't really any markets that escape the pain.

Comments

[mlkr:]

not specific enough! writing for the sake of writing!

2008 Dec 10 02:02 PM